Tim Cook Comments on 5-Inch Phone Market, Reiterates Commitment to Quality Over Size

[i0Nic]

I think people are being naive in counting out a 5 inch iPhone based on Cook's comments.

What he is really doing is setting up the eventual reveal of such a phone.

Look at his statement:

"Our competitors have made some significant tradeoffs in many of these areas to ship a larger display. We would not ship a larger display iPhone while these tradeoffs exist."

When they do announce it, they will first start talking about all the advancements they've made to the screen technology. They will then compare how lousy these big Android screens look. Then they will finally reveal they have made a 5 inch screen without all those tradeoffs, with the iPhone 6 having the best 5 inch screen on the market.

It's a classic Steve Jobs play.

 

[amro]

Come on, Tim! Why can't Apple release two phones in a year, one 4' and another 5'?

Some of us really love to have a bigger screen!

4 feet and 5 feet screens? Whoa, that's awfully big....

 

[Dmunjal]

I want my iPhone to be the same size as the new iPod Nano. For me, I want smaller. I want it to easily fit in my pocket and not be a nuisance. I bought the iPod Nano and instantly thought this is the perfect iPhone Nano. I have my iPad for everything else (notes, movies, web, etc).

Think about it... it makes more sense as a phone. Give me a 2.5" iPhone Nano. Make it super small and lightweight (same size as iPod Nano). Give it great battery life. Let me check my email, web, and text as well as use as a phone. I don't need anything else.

Maybe you don't need a smartphone? Just a feature phone. Not that there is anything wrong with that!

 

[xkmxkmxlmx]

App compatibility and one-handed use




Nope. It most certainly is NOT.

Huh? The apps were all compatible across platforms before they forced the 16:9.

 

[captain kaos]

As I've mentioned earlier, my 9 months of being with the SGS3 was awful. Yes, I too moved from the iPhone 4 and thought "no way I'm going back to that smaller, narrow screen", but I personally had 2 massive trade offs.

1) The battery needed to power that screen (and CPU) made it lucky if I got 12 hrs of minimal use.

I've sent the SGS3 back for repair as it overheated a lot and didn't last 6 hrs of use, so I'm using the iPhone 4 again. I can do the same normal everyday stuff on the iPhone 4 and get home with 50 odd % left, not at 15% with the S3 (and that was when it was new!)

2) For me the width was un usable, typing and getting my thumb from one end of the keyboard to the other made me almost drop it constantly, so it became a 2 handed affair, which made it backwards.

Yes, the S3 real estate for maps while driving is nice, but I'm guessing (as I haven't tried an iPhone 5 yet) that it will be fine for navigation purposes.

 

[Noctilux.95]

The First Electric Lamborghini:

http://www.gearfuse.com/the-first-electric-lamborghini/

Not really the first electric bull. Haven't you seen the Urban Cowboy?

 

[robsp2000]

Interesting phenomenon going on here. Usually, anything Apple says, the fans rationalize and agree. Most people here are posting that Tim Cook is just wrong. I have an S3 and an iphone. I have no problem holding the S3. My eyes love the larger screen. Those that think the size is just perfect should try a larger screen for a day. They'd not go back.

Yes, the battery life is better on the iphone.. but not allowing the user to swap out the battery for a spare is so limiting. Even with a longer battery life, I often find myself out of juice. With my S3, I just swap for a fresh battery in about 10 seconds.

Apple is just arrogant. They were game changers but they then sit back and slowly evolve while others surge forward. It is a recipe for disaster for them. You can't rest on your laurels forever. You can't continue to believe your own press and the fanboys. That huge advantage they got by being very good and first is now clearly waning. Making the iphone 5 longer but not otherwise bigger was a HUGE mistake. To prolong it may put them irretrievably behind. The comment about the bezel is right on. My S3 is only slightly larger than the iphone. It is all that wasted bezel space that makes most of the difference!


As for the comment about boring rows of icons... I've always thought that was like a PC. You would think that Apple would have the widgets allowing for seeing your calendar, the weather, quick buttons for important phone numbers. Palm Pilot had it before the iphone... and the iphone comes out with less functionality...and looks like a PC to boot. The longer iphone 5 screen just allowed for another row of icons. It seems so ostrich-like. People want a screen with functionality. Maybe you just can't do that on that tiny screen.

The Steve Jobs idea of not listening to others but rather telling people what they want works sometimes...but not always... and Steve is gone (and so is his 2 button mouse). It sounds a little bit like USSR and China. Planned systems from the top down are doomed to fail.

The fact that there are so few fanboys here tells you the tide is turning. Never saw this before.

God, I liked it so much better back in the day when all these people were Windows fans. Then Apple blows up, some of them buy iPhones and iPads, now we got to deal with them on the mac forums.

Do you carry an extra bag around your waist for your extra batteries?

 

[Icaras]

Tim Cook failed. ........ Everybody wants bigger screen smartphones.

I don't.

Me neither.

 

[futbalguy]

Apple is in the business of giving customers what is best for them, not what they want. What people say they want is not always what works best.

Specifically the larger phones. Yes, I have some 6'5" friends who feel the iPhone is too small, but they're a very small part of the market. I have fairly average sized hands, any phone wider than the current iPhone is a no-go for me. I hike a lot and use my phone as a GPS/mapping tool. I need to be able to use the GPS with one hand only, using the thumb alone for touch. I can't do that on any of the other larger-sized flagship smartphones made today.

If you have small children, you already appreciate the fact that the iPhone is one of the only flagship smartphones you can use with one hand.

As to why Apple doesn't make a lot of differently-sized iPhones for different people, it goes back to the first point. A lot of people will buy a larger-sized iPhone just because it's larger, despite the fact that it would provide a worse user experience. In the end, they'd have the sale anyway, but a larger group of customers are going to be unhappy with their experience than would otherwise have been the case. Apple won't do that.

Ok, yea a different size phone is only going to provide a worse experience if Apple does a bad job of designing the OS. There is NO reason a company of Apple's size cant make 2 sizes of a phone that both work great. Especially, if it is costing them market share and I assure you it is. I love iOS but I sure wouldnt mind switching to Android now that their phones are catching up. BTW, I am 6'5" so maybe thats why I want one.

 

[B4U]

Come on, Tim! Why can't Apple release two phones in a year, one 4' and another 5'?

Some of us really love to have a bigger screen!

GOD NO!
I don't want a 4 feet or 5 feet phone!!!!!

 

[Scottsdale]

Maybe you don't need a smartphone? Just a feature phone. Not that there is anything wrong with that!

No, I want smartphone features but a smaller screen. To me smartphone doesn't mean phablet. I like my iPhone 5, but I bought it more because it is thinner and more lightweight than the 4S than bigger. I like retina, I just think a 2.5" iPhone Nano would be the bomb. Why cannot we have multiple sizes with iOS on all of them?

 

[andyvg]

Screen size is a matter of personal preference, but what Tim Cook said is ridiculous. I love Apple and hate the thought of jumping ship, but Samsung and HTC have proven that there is a huge market for a bigger screen (not specifically for a bigger phone).

 

[4TheLoveOfTech]

At least Cook still has his dignity - Ballmer discarded that years ago.

Not after the earnings conference call today.

Apple was up 5.5% after hour trading. Currently .54% down.

He gave no hope and wrote off next quarter as well.
He said we're in it for long term. Translation...

Next quarter is bad too & we have nothing.
Great stuff in the pipelines.

Same as it ever was...

 

[olegandbuster25]

Delusional. But what else would you expect from a guy who has destroyed 5 times more investor value in one year than Bernie Madoff stole in a lifetime?

If Apple thinks they can wish away the changing reality of the market, they (and their stockholders) are going to be in for very rude awakening. There is absoutely *nothing* I can do with my phone on a 4" screen that I can't do better on a 5" screen. 4.7" is the bare minimum these days - Apple is still trying to compete with phones that were obsolete two years ago.

Competing with 2 year obsolete phones?
Lol that's why the iPhone is still the sales record holding phone?

 

[Switchback666]

Make it a 4.3inch screen and call it a day

 

[somethingelsefl]

They said the same thing before the iPhone 5 "we think 3inches is the best size"

Also, "we don't think anything smaller than 10inches is acceptable for a tablet"

Never trust what people in the industry say. They want you to keep buying the current stuff.

Most level-headed thing I've read on MR all day. Well said.

 

[carl0sian]

So be it. HTC One, here I come. I'm looking for bigger screen, not narrower.

Good luck with that one! Remember, there's the iPhone then there is everything else..

 

[SAD*FACED*CLOWN]

Am I the only person that wants his mobile device to be as small as possible? As it turns out I was one of the first kids to switch from a jumbo pencil to a standard #2 in the first grade. I got teased for it....they called me "skinny pencil". If apple really wants to stand out they should go in the opposite direction as the android manufacturers. Maybe one day there will be an iPhone the size of a credit card, and an android the size of a DVD case.

 

[syd430]

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[/COLOR]

Giant bezel? Have you compared an iPhone next to an HTC One side by side? Do so and then tell me which one has the bigger bezel...

Image

Thank you, come again.

Your comparison image is completely misleading and disingenuous as the images are not to scale. Load this video and skip to 4:26. As you can see, the bezel on the HTC One is about twice as thick as the iPhone on the sides (I wasn't comparing the top and bottom, if that's what you thought), and has probably the thickest bezel of any flagship Android phone on the market today.

Thank you and come again?

 

[ozute]

Yea I'm bored. Gonna buy a S4 Saturday. Not getting rid of my iPhone 5. This will allow me to spend some time comparing the two.

Me to. iOS is too long in the tooth now. Beige.

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Good luck with that one! Remember, there's the iPhone then there is everything else..

I disagree. I think there WAS the iPhone and everything else, but now it's just a small evolutionary update now and then.

 

[tjl3]

Hmmmmm.... but isn't that exactly what happens?

If you have a 1920x1080 phone with a 5" screen and a 1280x720 phone with a 4.7" screen... apps would look the same except for the size.

Android apps don't change their layout depending on the size of the phone screen... i.e. you don't get 5 buttons in an app on one phone but only 4 buttons on another phone.

I was just asking how a developer makes their graphics look the best when you are dealing with 800x480 screens and 1920x1080 screens... or when you have a few different aspect ratios.

Something has to happen to all those pixels.

By the way, I am just speculating, I have never personally developed for the Android platform. But they have API's to handle multiple resolutions.

I always thought the difficulty was developing for the various screen sizes on the Android platform. My point is exactly as you said, "Android apps don't change their layout depending on the size of the phone screen." But take, for example, a web page. A web page on a 5.5 inch Galaxy Note 2 SHOULD show a ton more content than say a 4.7 inch HTC One. Because the whole concept of having such a giant screen is to have a lot more content available, not just to make everything bigger. Take that idea and port it over to app development and it becomes tedious for developers to account for all the various screen sizes.

To dispute that last claim though, Pulse news still only displays 3 columns of articles no matter the screen size.

 

[kis]

The trade-offs Cook mentions don't seem to exist for other manufacturers. Both Samsung and HTC seem to be perfectly capable of producing 4.7"-5" phones with displays that are clearly better than the iPhone's. Also, Apps on Android seem to scale extremely well. I don't really see any problems with my HTC One in this respect.

Perhaps Cook's comments should be read as:

1. We're incapable of producing larger screens that have the same pixel density (because we chose to sue Samsung, who is capable of doing so).

2. We're incapable of producing a phone with a larger screen that at the same time has the same form factor (by reducing the bezel size). Samsung seems to be able to pull this off without a problem with the S4 (smaller size than the S3, bigger screen).

3. We messed up iOS 6 by not introducing scalability, now we can't alienate our app devs by introducing yet another screen resolution. So our customers will just have to suck it up and live with tiny screens for the foreseeable future.

4. Our development process has become so complicated that we're unable to release new products until fall. So we've chosen to employ Jobs's reality distortion field until then.

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1) The battery needed to power that screen (and CPU) made it lucky if I got 12 hrs of minimal use.

this just tells me that you've either never had an S3 and / or that you're just a fanboi in need of attention. I don't have a problem with people preferring the iPhone over other phones. Considering the fact that the S3 is known for having excellent battery-life, though, and your claiming the opposite disqualifies your post from being taken seriously.

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Competing with 2 year obsolete phones?
Lol that's why the iPhone is still the sales record holding phone?

the problem is that the sales record is held by the 4S. The 5 apparently isn't doing so great - or else Apple would have boasted how well it did last year. Instead, they chose to say "iPhone sales".

 

[etrinh]

The screen ratio of the S3 is 16:9 also...

Why do those of us who want a smaller screen have to get stuck with the ghastly 16:9 ratio?

The 4' inch is a botched compromised that didn't please anyone.

 

[Oletros]

Apple is in the business of giving customers what is best for them, not what they want. What people say they want is not always what works best.

Let me guess, you thought that 3.5" was the best for us and now 4$ is the best for us. And when Apple makes another screen size it will be the best for us

 

[OceanView]

AAPL $300 by end of this year.